A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers in south Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, the latest fatalities for the NATO-led coalition which is winding down after 12 years of fighting. The soldiers died in the volatile province of Kandahar, where five US troops were killed by a similar improvised explosive device targeting a vehicle on May 4. Kandahar is a hotbed of insurgent activity, with large areas under the control of Taliban militants who were ousted from power in Kabul in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

A roadside bomb killed five US troops in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, in the biggest attack on NATO-led forces since the Taliban launched their "spring offensive" a week ago. "Five American soldiers were killed at about noon when their armoured vehicle hit a powerful roadside mine in Maiwand district," Kandahar province's police chief General Abdul Razeq told AFP.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An earthquake in Afghanistan's east and flash floods in the north killed at least 33 people on Wednesday as hundreds of traditional mud-brick homes collapsed, officials said. The 5.7 magnitude quake, which hit before 2 p.m. (10:30 p.m. British time) was felt as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi and was the latest in a spate of tremors to shake Asia this month.

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have killed seven civilians with a roadside bomb and cut the throats of four Afghan soldiers kidnapped while travelling home on leave, officials said Wednesday. The civilians were travelling to the town of Shindand in the western province of Herat when their van was torn apart by the blast on Wednesday, they said. Seven civilians, including children, were killed and four wounded, the interior ministry said in a statement blaming the Taliban. Mohidin Noori, a provincial government spokesman, confirmed the death toll.